The best conference I've ever attended. Great venue. Great people. Well run. Just an amazing community and event that creates an environment for social entrepreneurs (big and small) to connect around poverty alleviation. - Mark Muckerheide, (Ret.) Director of Corporate Responsibility, Target Corporation

Agenda

Roster

Syllabus

It takes many players to change things in the world. A venue like this brings the right people together to catalyze ideas. The Opportunity Collaboration directly helps move capital into industries with social and environmental impact. It was worth the investment. - Gerhard Pries, CEO & Co-Managing Partner, Sarona Asset Management

Founding Partners

We partner with colleagues we trust, whose values we share when common objectives translate in ego-free zones.

The format allowed me to have in-depth meetings with over 20 leaders of early-stage organizations, our foundation’s target audience. In addition, I enjoyed quality time with several of our grantees, and still had time, over breakfast and while walking on the beach, to meet with my incredible peers, many of whom continue to inform my work and enhance my impact. - Anne Marie Burgoyne, Portfolio Director, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, USA

Logistics

The entire purpose of the Opportunity Collaboration is to connect you with new people and new ideas. Come prepared to share best practices, illuminate partnership opportunities or reveal a current passion or innovative idea. Engage your fellow Delegates with your mission.

Ways To Engage

Colloquium For The Common Good

Core Activity for All Delegates

The Colloquium for the Common Good is an essential aspect of the Opportunity Collaboration experience. In small groups, all Delegates participate in this core curriculum, creating a common experiential bond and shared set of learning.

The Colloquium is Opportunity Collaboration’s signature seminar on executive leadership, economic justice and the good society. The Colloquium addresses the principles that drive inequality and asks Delegates to think pragmatically about the nature of their leadership.

Salons

Salons are Delegate-led mealtime discussions on a relevant topic of interest. Focused discussions cover a wide range of policy, geographic, organizational, entrepreneurial and poverty-related themes. Delegates reveal specific challenges to scaling or improving their institutions. Delegates with resources (consultants, grant makers, investors, philanthropists, field experts and others) describe how they can help.

Salons are scheduled for ninety minutes during lunch and dinner each day. Up to twelve people per conversation table are seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Specific topics and Delegate-leaders are posted on the Agenda at the corresponding lunch or dinner time.

To Submit Your Salon Proposal:

Sixty-four Salon tables are awarded to Delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested Delegates should submit a proposal (title & 3-4 sentence description, including 2 guiding discussion questions) to the Opportunity Collaboration COO, Jorian Wilkins (jorian@ocimpact.com), as soon as possible. Current topics and Delegate-Catalysts are posted on the Agenda.

Networking Tips

Connection Concierge Service: Confirmed 2018 and prior Delegates may request introductions to each other at any time that is mutually productive. Search the 2018 Delegate Roster for potential allies, and email CEO Topher Wilkins with your reason for requesting a personal introduction. Introductions are always made with Delegate’s advance permission.

Regional Receptions: Throughout the year, Delegates host private regional receptions for fellow Delegates and their colleagues to further exchange ideas and resources and introduce new high-impact leaders to our network. Email CEO Topher Wilkins if you’d like to host an Opportunity Collaboration reception in your city.

Delegate Lookbook

Delegates are provided with a directory onsite that contains Delegate photos and contact information to facilitate communications and follow-up on connections made during the Opportunity Collaboration.

How To Showcase Your Mission

Host a session

Confirmed Delegates can lead Conversations for Change, Capacity-Building Clinics, and Meaningful Meal sessions. Agenda opportunities are awarded to Delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested Delegates should submit a proposal (title and a three to four sentence description, including 2 guiding discussion questions) to the Opportunity Collaboration COO, Jorian Wilkins (jorian@ocimpact.com), as soon as possible.

Submit a video for in-room news channel (Collaboration Network News)

Collaboration Network News (CNN) is the Opportunity Collaboration’s on-site television channel. Both channels broadcast 24/7 via into each Delegate’s Leadership Village room during the Opportunity Collaboration. All Delegates are encouraged to include at least one video clip for each CNN channel. One CNN broadcasts a video montage of 2-5 minute educational videos introducing the unique work Opportunity Collaboration Delegates and their organizations are accomplishing to combat poverty. The second CNN channel features longer (up to 2 hour) documentary-style films by or about Delegates and their organizations, showcasing their work in richer detail.

Tables for Delegate organizational displays and literature are available everyday in the Conference Center. Delegates are encouraged to bring modest amounts of materials for distribution. Based on prior years experience, 25 copies of handouts are usually sufficient, as these materials are mainly for fellow Delegates to peruse on-site during the event.

Conversations For Change

Conversations for Change are two-hour work sessions in which Delegates intensively describe missions, strategies and common challenges around a central question, policy issue or theme. Conversations for Change include a broad range of social impact actors: investors, grant-makers, for-profit social enterprises, non-profits, activists, policy influencers and more.

All participating Delegates are asked to contribute their specific institutional expertise, explain their mission or theory of social change and, most importantly, what problem they are confronting that attracted them to this Conversation session. Delegates are asked to investigate, brainstorm and imagine solutions within individual policy sectors, between sectors and across sectors. Institutional boundaries are set aside. Delegates act with generosity of spirit and a maximum amount of institutional cooperation. Lectures, powerpoints, static presentations, speechifying, organizational egos, pitches and filibusters are prohibited.

Conversations for Change are scheduled for two-hour time periods following lunch each day. Delegates attend on a first-come, first-seated basis.

To Submit Your Conversation for Change Proposal:

Conversations for Change are awarded to Delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested Delegates should submit a proposal to the Opportunity Collaboration COO, Jorian Wilkins (jorian@ocimpact.com), as soon as possible. Current topics and Delegate-Catalysts are posted on the Agenda.

Capacity-Building Clinics

Capacity-Building Clinics are Delegate-inspired and organized professional development sessions in which Delegates intensively coach each other. Concrete, pragmatic skills for institutions and organizational leadership are taught. Topics include, but are not limited to: media relations; sales and marketing strategies; fund raising and investor-donor relations; evaluating organizational and programmatic effectiveness; financial planning; business plan writing; other topics proposed by Delegates.

Clinics are scheduled for two-hour time periods from 3 to 5pm every day. Delegates enroll on a first-come, first-seated basis.

To Submit Your Capacity-Building Clinic Proposal:

Capacity-Building Clinics are awarded to Delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested Delegates should submit a proposal (title and a three to four sentence description) to the Opportunity Collaboration COO, Jorian Wilkins (jorian@ocimpact.com), as soon as possible. Current topics and Delegate-Catalysts are posted on the Agenda.

Guidelines For Success

Themes, Topics, Issues, & You

Don’t hold back. The best sessions and captivating private conversations will be about what is important to you and your work.

• As an agent of social change, what are your most significant institutional goals and challenges?

• What is your organization’s theory of change and how do you measure results?

• What is your current strategy or business plan for financial sustainability and/or accountable impact?

• What emerging and promising opportunities to reduce poverty do you see in the marketplace?

• What types of partners or expertise do you require or seek to achieve your objectives(s)?

• How are you currently realizing new opportunities for global connections and new alliances?

• Do you have a collaborative or hybrid social change model that other Delegates can replicate or join in partnership?

To continue productive conversations after the Opportunity Collaboration, all Delegates receive a complete Delegate Roster with full contact information. You don’t need to exchange or carry business cards.

Diversity & Equality

We are a diverse group of change-makers with different racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, class, sexual, and gender backgrounds and orientations coming together to do what we can to make this world a better place for all.

We acknowledge working in a world with numerous divisions, and can’t pretend that all who come to this gathering are perceived as equal in social status in the world as it presently exists.

Absolutely all are welcome here. But by welcoming all we don’t in any way wish to disavow or diminish the very real differences each of us embodies.

Like the potent, self-aware people we aim to be we intentionally foreground those differences. We name them clearly in order to recognize the very real historical power differentials that have resulted from those differences.

Our aim is not to hide, repress, or deny those differences, but to go through them to realize our personal and collective aims.

Ask The Big Question

Ask every Delegate: What is your mission? How can I help you advance it?

Be Yourself. Be Authentic. Be Evocative.

Share your passion with personal stories – the highs and the lows of your work. Make it personal. Make it real.

Be tangible. Provide other Delegates with the information needed to consider collaborating with you. If you were considering partnering or backing your organization, what would you want to know about it?

Honor the opinions of other Delegates by respecting the Opportunity Collaboration’s non-partisanship, confidentiality and informality.

Talking About Money

Some of us have money, some do not. We meet at an all-inclusive resort in order to help minimize those class differences. But some of us are donors and some of us seek donations. That’s real too.

Class, race, gender, etc. privileges all exist. Some have more privileges, some less, but we most of us embody some combination of both.

We aim to acknowledge all our power differentials with each other up front so that each of us can refine her/his awareness and work with them, not in spite of them.

We also acknowledge how privileged all of us are simply to be able to attend this gathering.

So let us be the change we seek to make in the world. Let us be leaders not only in our work outside Opportunity Collaboration, but in our work collaboratively as well.

Let us each bring our full awareness and most skillful means to acknowledging our differences and working with them during our time together, for our own benefit and for the benefit of all.

Whether you have money or want money, a few tips about framing intelligent conversations:

• Be candid. Funders can’t fund everything that is worthy and no anti-poverty program is the panacea. Save yourself and everyone else time by stating your agenda and focus.

• Failure never fails. Put forth what is working, what has failed and what you’ve learned. Your candor will be appreciated, and you will win converts to your cause.

• Keep it short. Be concise and get to the point. Don’t preach.

Your fellow Delegates, especially funders, are thought leaders and much more than the sum of their bank accounts. Avoid performing wallet biopsies on other Delegates. It disrespects the spirit of the Opportunity Collaboration to monetize every conversation.

Raise The Bar, Aim High

Every Delegate shares your commitment to economic justice. All are seasoned veterans and distinguished leaders in the anti-poverty movement. Delegates appreciate comments and presentations that are demanding, challenging and sophisticated.

• Don’t talk about “me” and what you have achieved. It’s a given that all Opportunity Collaboration delegates are accomplished people.

• Don’t hesitate to discuss failures. Some of the best learning comes from what doesn’t work.

Suggestions For Dynamic Sessions

All sessions are conversational discussions, not lectures, formal presentations or panels. Powerpoint and other electronic aids are not available.

• Introductions should be the first order of business

• Start with a question, rather than your own presentation to stimulate participation

• Be concrete rather than theoretical

• Follow the conversation; don’t force it to go in a predetermined direction

• Don’t step on other speakers

Ego Control

Collaboration is not just a matter of playing nicely with others. It is an element of structural reform which can reduce organizational dysfunction. Institutional silos (such as entrepreneurs vs. nonprofits, governments vs. foundations, funders vs. grantees) block pragmatic problem-solving. Pack your ideas and solutions, but leave your institutional baggage (and your ego) behind.

Participate To The Max

The Opportunity Collaboration forms an extraordinary community of life-time allies and personal friendships. Leave even one day early (yes, we know, the home office can’t live without you, but neither can we) and you will miss the final moments when handshakes and hugs form the foundation for future collaboration.

No Second-Class Citizenship

All the paid and pro bono staff members are, like you, full Delegates of the Opportunity Collaboration. There is no hierarchy, and no levels of membership. Everyone you meet is committed to social & economic justice for all Americans and is attending the Opportunity Collaboration to learn and share.

Health & Wellness

Collaborate yourself! Drink water and get some rest; you are in the tropics. You are not expected to attend every seminar, every round table and every stimulating program. Take a nap, take a walk, take care of yourself. Have fun!

The Delegate all-inclusive registration fee includes ALL on-site costs, including 5 nights lodging, 3 meals per day, airport transportation to & from Palm Beach International Airport (PBI), internet, leadership colloquium, policy discussions, Delegate-led seminars, all networking programs, and recreational facilities. The only other expense is airfare.

Delegate Suite-Sharing

The $2500.00 ($2950.00 after November 30th) Suite-Sharing Delegate fee includes full Delegate standing. Each suite has two separate bedrooms (one with a king bed, one with two twins) and share a common bathroom. Delegates can request a specific suite-mate, or Opportunity Collaboration staff will pair together single Delegates electing to enroll at the suite-sharing rate.

Extended Stays

Lodging for extended stays before or after the pre-paid 5 nights is $295.00 per night (up to two people per room, including meals). An additional $100 per night will be charged for each child in the room. As with all other hotel arrangements, book your extended stay with the Opportunity Collaboration Registrar Tracie Hudgins.

Cancellation Policies

After January 1, 2018, a $750.00 cancellation fee is applied for Delegate cancellations. No cash refunds are allowed after February 28, 2018. If a Delegate cancels between March 1 & April 15, 2018, the Delegate’s fee balance remaining (after the $750.00 cancellation fee) can be credited towards the 2019 Collaboration: to use the credit, the Delegate must register for the 2019 Collaboration prior to December 31, 2018; the credit will otherwise expire at the end of 2018. Delegate cancellations which occur after April 15, 2018 do not receive a credit towards the 2019 Collaboration. To cancel, contact the Opportunity Collaboration Registrar Tracie Hudgins.

Scheduling & Arrival

Scheduling Travel:Arrival day for ALL Delegates is May 6, 2018.
The Collaboration commences that evening.

Departure date is May 11, 2018, anytime.
Important Note: Delegates departing before May 11, 2018, miss critical program and networking elements of the Opportunity Collaboration.

Delegates arriving by car will navigate to the Sandpiper Bay Club Med in Port St. Lucie, Florida at 4500 SE Pine Valley Street, and check-in at Reception.

Delegates arriving by air to Palm Beach International Airport, who have submitted their flight itinerary to Tracie Hudgins (tracie@ocimpact.com) in advance, will be greeted at the airport with Opportunity Collaboration signs, and chauffeured 45 minutes to the leadership village in small groups. Start meeting Delegates on the way to OC!

Upon arrival at the leadership village, you and your luggage will be escorted directly to your room, with a quick stop at the Communications Center so you can pick up your welcome packet, containing a personalized agenda and village map, from your onsite mailbox. You can deliver organizational literature to the Literature Library in the Convention Center. Dinner with open seating is 6:30pm to 8:30pm followed by the Welcome Reception.

Sustainable Funding Model

Opportunity Collaboration is a mission-driven social enterprise. Opportunity Collaboration exists to further the work of leaders ending poverty, in the United States and globally, and heavily invests in Fellowships. Because Delegates make the Opportunity Collaboration financially sustainable without subsidies from outside sources, Delegates are the only stakeholders. The network serves one purpose alone: increasing social justice and economic opportunity – no sponsors, no paid promotions, and no gimmicks.

Flights

Palm Beach International Airport Only (Airport Code: PBI)

Submit Flight Itinerary. Important Note: Flight information must be submitted in advance to reserve complimentary airport shuttle service. Delegates must finalize and submit an air travel itinerary on or before April 15th. Send your itinerary information as soon as you book your flight to: Tracie Hudgins.

Delegates flying into airports other than Palm Beach International and arranging their own transportation or arriving by car can navigate to the Sandpiper Bay Club Med in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Traveling Companions

The Opportunity Collaboration is family friendly and welcomes family members and significant others to accompany Delegates.

The $450.00 Traveling Companion all-inclusive registration fee includes 5 nights lodging (standard hotel double occupancy), three meals per day, airport shuttle and gratuities. Airfare and other personal expenses not included. To bring a Traveling Companion, the primary Delegate must be registered for a private room. Delegates should register their Traveling Companion early, because the Traveling Companion fee will increase when the Collaboration is sold out. Register here or to add your Traveling Companion to your existing registration, contact Registrar Tracie Hudgins.

Non-Delegate Traveling Companions may attend all networking receptions and events, all recreational programs and all evening activities. However, the Colloquium for the Common Good, Conversations for Change and Capacity-Building Clinics are reserved for full Delegates only. Companions who wish to participate in these programs should register as full Delegates ($2500.00, standard hotel double occupancy until Dec. 31st). See Delegate Suite-Sharing.

While Delegates are in the daily Colloquium, Conversations for Change and Capacity-Building Clinic sessions, Traveling Companions may at their own expense use the spa services or arrange offsite excursions ranging from golf, snorkeling and swimming with dolphins to cultural explorations. Spa and excursion appointments can be made upon arrival; fees vary by activity.

Children: 17 Years or Younger

An all-inclusive $350.00 registration fee is required for children 17 years of age or younger and includes all lodging, meals, airport shuttles and gratuities. Eighteen years of age and older are considered adult traveling companions. To bring a traveling companion or child, the primary Delegate must be registered for a private room. Register here or to make changes to your existing registration, contact Registrar Tracie Hudgins.

Family accommodations are equipped with strollers, cribs, baby bathtubs, bottle warmers and sanitizers, white noise players and changing areas. Family-friendly dining, beach and pool areas are designated for Delegates with children. For families with younger children, high chairs, booster seats and baby food are available.

Children must be accompanied by an adult caregiver at all times during the Opportunity Collaboration. A supervised recreational program for 4-13 year olds is available from 9am to 5pm. For children under 4, Baby Club (0-24 months) and Petit Club (2-3 years old) are available on a fee basis. Pajama Club is available nightly from 7pm-midnight at a cost of $35 per child (ages 4 months – 10 years). Children watch movies and play games until bedtime. At bedtime, children sleep in the adjacent nap room equipped with cots and cribs.

Room Features & Cuisine. All rooms are equipped with air conditioning, safes, hairdryer, iron & ironing board, mini-bar, television and standard North American electrical outlets. Complimentary internet service is available. A high-speed package is available for an additional fee. The leadership village serves three healthy buffets daily. All meals, snacks, non-alcoholic beverages, beer & well-drinks are included in the all-inclusive Delegate fee.

Health, Fitness & Safety. The leadership campus is an enclave restricted to Delegates and hotel staff. Water is safe to drink. The all-inclusive Delegate fee includes complimentary use of all health and wellness facilities, including the gymnasium, tennis courts, kayaking, paddle-boarding, windsurfing and sailing equipment, yoga and trapeze instruction, basketball, volleyball, ping pong, golf range, mini-golf and more.

Attire. The Collaboration atmosphere is relaxed, unhurried, informal and conducive to quiet conversation and dialogue. For daytime sessions and meals, Delegates should consider shorts, t-shirts and sandals suitable to tropical weather. For evenings, dressy resort attire is appropriate.

Weather. Florida in May is tropical, balmy and hot with temperatures ranging from 70 to 90 degrees F. Expect some humidity and light afternoon rain showers.

Anti-Harassment Policy

Introduction

At Opportunity Collaboration, we envision a world where everyone is treated fairly and equally. We know that is not yet the world that we live in, and acknowledge that there is power and privilege that we must work to address to level the playing field.

We have a zero-tolerance policy for harm and harassment. Opportunity Collaboration reserves the right to decline Delegate status to anyone violating this policy. This policy is shared on the website and every Delegate receives written information onsite about how to report negative experiences, along with a list of individuals who can respond to concerns.

Guidelines

We seek to live our values in community, as demonstrated through our words and actions. We seek to create a space where everyone feels supported to show up as their best self and share their unique contributions with one another. We believe that we create our best work in the world in an environment where everyone can thrive. We seek to support our Delegates in being present with one another in a way that dismantles oppressive systems present in society at large.

To create a space where everyone feels welcomed and supported, we ask all Delegates in our community to follow these guidelines:

Respect others. We respect every person and prioritize personal development in ourselves and others. Respectful behavior includes listening before speaking and asking questions rather than assuming intentions. It means respecting others as they seek to build meaningful connections, and entering into private meetings or conversations only when invited, or after asking permission.

Assume the best. If you have been offended or hurt by someone’s words or actions, seek first to understand their intentions and meaning (if you feel it is appropriate and that you can do so safely).

Respect your own needs. Pay attention to your own needs. Stand up for yourself if you have been treated unfairly, or ask for help or clarification. Take the time or space you need to be fully present and rested.

Engage in constructive dialogue. We bring together people from many different walks of life. Recognize that someone else’s frame of reference is likely to be different from your own. When conflicts arise, see what you can learn from another’s point of view.

Do not harass others, and do your part to prevent and stop harassment. Contribute not only through refraining from engaging in harassing behavior yourself, but by standing beside and in support of others who you see experiencing forms of harassment.

What Is Harassment?

What is harassment? Harassment can be verbal, physical, or emotional. Harassment includes:

Use or abuse of a position of privilege or power to manipulate or extort others into doing something about which they are hesitant or uncomfortable (i.e. meeting in a location or in attire that is not professional).

The best part of Opportunity Collaboration is that without any planning on my part, I have always met someone who helps push forward our work. - Nancy Hughes, President & Founder, StoveTeam International

Fellowships

Fellowships provide exceptional social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and journalists engaged in poverty alleviation and economic justice enterprises registration scholarships to participate as Delegates in the Opportunity Collaboration. Fellowships open doors, minds and networks, enrich the Opportunity Collaboration with new leaders, and infuse collaborative discussions with a diversity of experience and perspectives. Financial need is a primary consideration.

Fellows are responsible for their own travel costs, itinerary and documentation.

Cordes Fellowship

Cordes Fellows are high-impact, innovative, entrepreneurial for-profit and nonprofit executives with a demonstrated commitment to building sustainable solutions to poverty and injustice in the United States.

Boehm Media Fellowship

Boehm Fellowships provide journalists, storytellers, authors, bloggers, writers, editors, filmmakers, and other media experts at the helm of social innovation with a major focus on poverty alleviation the opportunity to participate as Delegates.

I made new acquaintances at larger foundations and found new opportunities for our foundation to partner in interesting and exciting ways. And I felt I was able to take my own leadership development to a new level as a Catalyst for a Conversation for Change. - Emily West, Executive Director & Vice President, The West Foundation